Three held for running fake job racket, ‘masterminds’ still at large

Police Tuesday said it had busted a fake job racket by arresting three people who were duping people on the pretext of jobs in government departments against heavy cash payments. The police said four others believed to be the “masterminds” behind the scam are still at large.

Acting on a complaint lodged at the Ram Munshi Bagh Police Station in Srinagar, the police started investigation into the fake job racket which led to the arrest of three people who had allegedly taken Rs 57 lakh from 18 people for getting them government jobs, a police spokesman said.

He said a special investigation team (SIT) was formed in regard, which arrested the three accused–identified as Mushtaq Ahmad Ganiae of Kulgam, Fayaz Ahmad Dar alias Aijaz of Pattan in Baramulla and Sham Lal alias Manhas of Jammu– from Jammu.

“During investigation, it was learnt that more people from different parts of the valley were involved in the scam, who had duped dozens of unemployed youth,” the official spokesman said.

“Three more people identified as Bilal Ahmad Dar, Arshad Ahmad (both from Srinagar) and Abdul Jabbar Hajam of Kupwara were linked with the scam,” he said.

The spokesman said these three people would entice gullible unemployed youth for government jobs against large sums of money.

“After receiving money, they used to arrange their meeting with Mushtaq, Fayaz and Sham Lal who would pose as senior officials working in the Civil Secretariat and provide the candidates appointment letters of different departments like the Forest, Health, Agriculture and J&K Bank,” he added.

The police also recovered fake appointment letters with government departmental logos, relieving and transfer orders and service books with fake seal and signature of government officials.

Several lower rung government and bank officials were also believed to be involved in the scam, the spokesman said, adding that police had called up two officials for questioning.

“Police are looking for four other people who are believed to be the masterminds in the scam and are evading arrest,” he said.

The police also raided a documentation centre in HMT area of the city where fake appointment letters and identity cards were being printed, he said, adding that the computer centre owner was arrested and all the material used for printing was seized.